The present invention relates to a sunshade device for motor vehicles, comprising a sunshade that can be displaced between an inoperative position and an operative position with respect to a supporting structure, and a shape-memory actuator for controlling displacement of the sunshade from its inoperative position to its operative position.
A device of the type referred to above is described and illustrated in the document No. JP-A-62 006824. In the case of said known device, the sunshade is in the form of a panel guided in a slidable way between an inoperative position where it is retracted within a casing and an extracted operative position. On account of the dimensions of the sunshade, the casing that receives it in the inoperative condition has a relatively large encumbrance in the longitudinal direction of the motor vehicle. Said aspect constitutes a drawback, particularly in the case of vehicles equipped with sunroof with window. In this case, in fact, the front cross member of the roof, which delimits at the front the opening of the window, must present a dimension in the longitudinal direction of the motor vehicle that is relatively large, which makes it impossible for the driver and the passenger sitting in the front seat of the motor vehicle to enjoy fully the advantages of the window present on the roof. Said circumstance is highlighted in FIG. 1 of the annexed plate of drawings, which shows a partial view of a motor vehicle 1, equipped with a windscreen 2 and a roof 3 with a window 4 delimited at the front by a cross member 5. In the case of application of the device according to the known art, the cross member 5 has, as clearly illustrated in FIG. 1, a dimension in the longitudinal direction A of the motor vehicle that is relatively large, in so far as each of the sunshades 6 must be received, in its own inoperative condition, within said cross member 5. Consequently, the front edge 7 of the window 4 made in the roof 3 is sensibly retracted, a fact which, as has been said, does not enable the driver of the motor vehicle and the passenger sitting in the front seat to enjoy fully the advantages of the window on the roof.